I don't think I've ever rated a Hallmark movie higher than maybe a 3 or 4 lol.

Not that this was a new plot that's never been done before. Just that the writer took the time to fill in the lines with some colour and give it some dimension.

For starters, the citified (female) chef was not painted like all other (female) chefs in Hollywood big screen or generic rom coms, as uptight egocentric bossy and treats her staff like sub par, or belittles the small town folk. This woman was refreshingly down to earth and also a respectful human being. Again, breaking the mold of the Hallmark big city person coming to the small town and treating them like hicks. Or whining they don't have truffle oil or Gucci stores or Wedgewood China. Or whatever. I'm not on some feminist rant, but given the stereotypical happily ever nature of the genre, it's pretty nice to see she's not dropping her life long dream to live happily ever after with the town hick and be barefoot and pregnant baking pies for the fair a year later. And as a female chef in a male dominated and bro culture industry, I'm happy to see this picture painted to not glorify the nasty egocentric personality that must exist or you wont be successful.

Following that, another way the writers broke the mold, making the mechanic shop owner a woman, a regular woman with a regular son, not a stereotypical small town mechanic dude.

Finally, breaking the mold on Hallmark plots, not having the uptight city woman leaving a picture perfect money chasing boyfriend or fiance behind, and also not making the romantic history of the male lead a huge deal, like being mopey and miserably single since his wife died. He brought it up briefly over pizza, and the daughter made a gentle mention to him she didn't mind if he dated, but didn't spend the whole movie trying to push the 2 together.

On that note, the male and female lead had great natural chemistry but that could attribute to them being a long-time off screen couple. It happens, but it's rare to see two leads in a Hallmark movie have an organic chemistry and instead come off as oil and water on set forcing some flirtatious dynamic.

Nice conflict and twist 15 minutes before the end because there has to be that in all Hallmark movies, right? Some kind of misunderstanding etc. Leave it to the MIT-bound daughter setting her dad straight. But it all wrapped up quickly and was well wrapped up.

This is the first Hallmark movie I've watched that I didn't have to pick apart. That seems impossible. So I hope I see more out of this writer and director, and also more of the 2 leads. She has been in a handful of other Hallmark movies as tertiary characters but has a background in theatre, and he has some great shows under his belt, but they both deserve to be leads. The water in the pool that they select rom com leads from needs to be changed. It's getting murky. Time for some new faces.